Saturday Happenings

Hi everyone!
We are approaching the end of the team's first day in Haiti, and I think it was a pretty good day!
We were able to get out with Zach Segaar-King today, a CRWM missionary here in Haiti. He was generous enough to take his Saturday off to take us around today. He began by taking us to the Baptist Mission, where we got a few souvenirs. He next took us to CAH, which is a committee of Haitian Artisans. They have a shop in Port-au-Prince where they sell many of the goods that the Haitian Artisans make. We were able to get a lot of really cool things from there. We said we should have a "show and tell" some night down here with all of the souvenirs that we bought, so we can see everyone's goodies, but I don't think it will be happening tonight. It was also really cool, because we all got our souvenirs back from this store in woven bags. An extra bonus, souvenir!
After we got our goodies, Zach took us through an area of Port-au-Prince where we were able to see several important buildings to Haiti, such as the Presidential Palace, which is Haiti's White House. We also saw several statues that mark monumental occasions in Haiti's history, such as the slave calling others to revolt with the conch shell.
Around 1:00, we arrived at the Christian Reformed Church of Haiti's Ministry Center. We had the opportunity to talk to Pastor Lement for a little while. He gave us a nice presentation about the ministry that he works with, which is called the Ministry for Christian Development. They work with pastor's training, diaconal training, literacy, and community development. It was fascinating to hear of his passion for helping Haiti, and how he and his organization are able to do that through their various ministries. We asked him what the largest challenge CRC churches face in Haiti are. He said it is definitely literacy. Illiteracy rates in Haiti are astronomically high. As you can imagine, it makes it very difficult to do training of any sort, whether for pastors or deacons, if the people cannot read. I have a really hard time imagining that- how can someone be a pastor if they cannot read? How would they be able to lead a congregation if they can't read the Bible? It's great that there are so many people who are willing to assume leadership positions in the church, and are called to that, but I think it's so unfortunate that it has to be so difficult for them. It helps me to realize again how education is so incredibly important for helping Haiti. How can anything happen if people can't read? I don't see how they can get ahead.
It was really interesting to be able to drive through more of Port-au-Prince again. At our team meeting tonight, many of us commented on how it seemed so strange to see how crowded the streets were, and how there was so much trash everywhere. It was great to hear from Zach many different things as we drove through the city. He definitely helped us to understand more of what we were seeing.
After we left the Ministry Center, Zach took us to Epidor, which is a fast-food type restaurant in the Delmas area of Port-au-Prince. Several of us got hamburgers, several got sub sandwiches, and many of us got ice cream, which tasted great! It definitely refreshed us to sit in the air conditioning for a while before driving the rest of the way up the mountain.
We had Zach drop us off at the Toddler House, so we were able to hang out with some of the kids there for a hour or so. We got to see the area where we will be holding the VBS and get a better idea of that, and then meet some of the kids. All of the VBS kids weren't there- some were on an outing- but it was good to be able to meet at least some of them.
After a dinner of some hamburgers and fries, we hung out with some of our assigned babies on the balcony, and then had a little team meeting with devotions. Some of us are blogging, some are sorting donations, and then we have the evening to ourselves. Some of us get to shower, and I'm sure we'll be spending more time cuddling babies.
Well, I hope you enjoy hearing about our day! We are having a good time!
Blessings,
Kristin